Lectoris Salutem

   I have had my share of different birds in my life. In the first 30 years I learned a lot about birds, and my mind never changed as to where they belong. Moms fear of birds in the house also did not help matters.

   I started out with the cute little parakeets, how many were lost because the boys would not keep the cage closed and the wings grew too fast I will never know. I do remember blue, green, yellow and green and some mixes in between. Oh, and they do bite!

   I loved my bright yellow canary but it drove my husband crazy so I gave it to my neighbor.

   My friend had pocket parrots that were cute but I decided my first jump from a parakeet would be a cockatiel. Now he was way cool. He learned to talk, helped Gary cook once falling into the spaghetti sauce. In fact we loved Pauline so much we decided to try a parrot.

   The first one was a Red-Headed Parrot. All he did was screech very loud and was a horrible biter. We tried treats, toys like rope, bells, mirrors, seed trees you name it and he got it. Nothing worked finally gave in and gave him away.

   The next one was a Double Yellow-Headed Amazon Parrot. We had him for quite a while but between the messes and noise we soon parted ways.

   Then came the African Grey. Notice I am going up in size and so are the cages! All he did was pick all his feathers out and ran up a big veterinarian bill just to tell me he had a nervous disorder and did not like me. Found a home for him too.

   Last but not least we got a cockatoo. He had been very mistreated and we could never get close to him.  Hint: do not buy a bird that was abused. He bit all of his perches in half, ate or tour up everything we gave him to play with. He went to a nice young man with lots of time and energy.

   Pauline died at a ripe old age of 14 and Mom moved in with us.